life is blessing

Never forget that life is a blessing. A rare opportunity. When the illusion seems real, look up at the sun and remember who you are. Remember what is within you. And in this, be joyful. 

~ Robert Adams

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Talk 140. 

D.: What is reality?

M.: Reality must be always real. 

It is not with forms and names. 

That which underlies these is the Reality. 

It underlies limitations, being itself limitless. It is not bound. 

It underlies unrealities, itself being real. Reality is that which is. 

It is as it is. 

It transcends speech, beyond the expressions, e.g., existence, non-existence, etc.

Talk 141. 

The same gentleman later, after quoting a verse from Kaivalya, asked: 

“Can jnana be lost after being once attained?”

M.: Jnana, once revealed, takes time to steady itself. The Self is certainly within the direct experience of everyone, but not as one imagines it to be. It is only as it is. 

This Experience is samadhi. 

Just as fire remains without scorching against incantations or other devices but 

scorches otherwise, so also the Self remains veiled by vasanas and reveals itself when there are no vasanas. 

Owing to the fluctuation of the vasanas, jnana takes time to steady itself. Unsteady jnana is not enough to check rebirths. Jnana cannot remain unshaken side by 

side with vasanas. True, that in the proximity of a great master, the vasanas will cease to be active, the mind becomes still and samadhi results, similar to fire not scorching because of other devices. Thus 

the disciple gains true knowledge and right experience in the presence of the master. To remain unshaken in it further efforts are necessary. 

He will know it to be his real Being and thus be liberated even while alive. 

Samadhi with closed eyes is certainly good, but one must go further until it is realised that actionlessness and action are not hostile to each other. Fear of loss of samadhi while one is active is the sign 

of ignorance. Samadhi must be the natural life of everyone.

There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until it is realised effort is necessary. After tasting such Bliss, even once one will repeatedly try to regain it. Having once experienced the Bliss of Peace no one would like to be out of it or engaged himself otherwise. 

It is as difficult for a Jnani to engage in thoughts as it is for an ajnani to be free from thought.

The common man says that he does not know himself; he thinks many thoughts and cannot remain without thinking.

Any kind of activity does not affect a Jnani; his mind remains ever in eternal Peace.

- Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi

Raj yog

👣 Begin with your toes and think of each part of your body as perfect; picture it so in your mind, touching each part if you prefer to do so. Pass upward bit by bit until you reach the head, thinking of each as perfect, lacking nothing. Then think of the whole as perfect, an instrument, given to you by God to enable you to attain Truth; the vessel, in which you are to cross the ocean and reach the shores of Eternal Truth. When this has been done, take a long breath through both nostrils, throw it out again, and then hold it out as long as you comfortably can. Take four such breaths, then breathe naturally and pray for illumination: "I meditate on the Glory of that Being, who created this Universe; may He illuminate my mind". Sit and meditate on this ten or fifteen minutes.

Swami Vivekananda

(CW/V8/Lectures And Discourses/Six Lessons On Raja-Yoga)

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longing

🌓 Sri Ramakrishna (to the devotees): “God’s will is both in worldliness and freedom. It is He, who has kept you unconscious in worldly life. And again, at His will, when He calls you, you will be liberated.

The child has gone out to play – its mother will call at meal-time.

He will give you the company of sadhus, when he wants to grant you Liberation. And He will also give you the yearning to attain Him”.

A neighbour: “Sir, what kind of yearning?”

Sri Ramakrishna: “The yearning that you feel, when you lose a job – the way you go from office to office every day to enquire: “Sir, is there a vacancy?”

Yearning brings restlessness: how can I attain God?

When a dandy twirls his mustache up on the sides, sits cross-legged, and chews betel-leaf nonchalantly, he can’t attain God”.

Neighbour: “Can you develop such longing by keeping the company of holy people?”

Sri Ramakrishna: “Yes, you can. But a hypocrite can’t attain such yearning. A kamandalu (a sannyasin’s water pot made of bitter gourd) is with the sadhu all the time that he is visiting the four centres of pilgrimage, but it remains as bitter as it was before”.

Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna

("Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita" word to word translation by Sri Dharm Pal Gupta, V5, Section VI, Ch. I, “Sri Ramakrishna at Balaram’s and Adhar’s houses in Calcutta”, 2 June, 1883)

bliss

 We have not got to attain bliss. We are bliss. Bliss is another name for us. It is our nature. All that we have to do is to turn the mind, draw it from the sense objects every time it goes towards them, and fix it in the Self .

Sri Ramana Maharshi

self

Visitor: 

“When a man Realises The Self, 

... What will he see?” 

Bhagavan:

“There is no seeing. 

... 'Seeing', is only 'Being'. 

'The State Of Self-Realization' - as we call IT, is not attaining something new, or reaching some goal, which is far away, but simply Being that which 'You' always ARE, and which 'You' always have been. 

All that is needed is that you give up your realization of 'the not-true' - as True. 

All of us are realizing, i.e.; regarding 'as Real' - that which is 'Not Real'. 

We have only to give up this practice, on our part. Then we shall Realize The Self, as The Self - or in other words, ‘BE' The Self.

At one stage, one would laugh at oneself; that one tried to discover The Self, which is so Self-Evident.

So, what can we say to this question?

That stage, Transcends 'the seer and the seen'. 

... There is 'no seer' there, 'to see' anything;

'The seer' - who is 'seeing' all this, now ceases to exist, and The Self Alone remains.”

🕉 Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi